Scottish Power has seen a rise in profits over the first three months of 2018 after its generation and supply business rebounded from a poor performance in the same period last year.
In a first quarter trading update, the company reported a 34 per cent increase in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBIDTA) to £466.5 million.
Improved margins helped the generation and supply division boost its EBIDTA by almost two and half times (247 per cent) year-on-year to £131.7 million. However, profits were still down on the £146 million it earned during the first quarter of 2016.
The rebound came despite the loss of around 100,000 customer accounts, which left Scottish Power with roughly 5 million at the end of March.
Earnings from Scottish Power Renewables were also up 29 per cent at £127.7 million owing to favourable wind conditions and increased capacity. Its portfolio generated 1,684 GWh of electricity over the quarter – a year-on-year increase of almost 23 per cent. Onshore generation grew by 32 per cent and offshore generation by 12 per cent.
SP Energy Networks was the only one of the three businesses to see a fall in earnings which dropped by 1.6 per cent to £207.1 million.
Scottish Power chief executive Keith Anderson, said: “Renewables has performed well, and we can see the benefits of our £650 million investment in new onshore wind that was completed last year.
“Networks also continue to perform in-line with expectations based on the major investment plans running through in to the next decade.
“The improvement in generation and supply follows a very difficult 2017, which delivered one of the weakest performances for the business in the last decade. The first three months of the year has seen the business recover to a level just below Q1 in 2016.
“With the price cap pending this year, we still expect a challenging environment for the retail business in 2018.”
Parent company Iberdrola reported a 24 per cent increase in EBIDTA to €2.32 billion (£2.03 billion) and a 1.2 per cent rise in net profits to €838 million (£733 million).